Movies We Dig | Film, Antiquity and Everything in Between

We're back with our first episode of season 2. Joined by threepeat guest and avowed servant of Rita Repulsa, the always amazing Dr. Vogler, we dig into Ray Harryhausen's 1981 Clash of the Titans. Naturally, we spend the first 5 minutes talking about our speaking habits and fancy vocab words before getting to the actual movie, but his film is fascinating to us both as a work of classical reception and as an artifact of modern cinema. It's a fairly down the middle adaptation of a myth and perhaps the last example of a Hollywood tradition of movie-making embodied in the effects of Ray Harryhausen. Listen to our takes on the gods, heroes, monsters, behind-the-scenes drama, whales and more.

At one point we mention posts on Twitter by Aimee Hinds Scott on the film legacy of Medusa, which you can check out here.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a short hiatus, we're back to announce MWD will be returning for another season. More movies, more not-movies, all the hot-takes. We talk briefly about our vision for the show and tease some upcoming films, shows and video games we'll be discussing. You can also read more about our past and future plans over at our friends SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE. Special thanks to Joel Christensen for magnanimously offering us a platform upon which to pontificate.

Get

Excited

For Movies

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gigantomachy II: Electric Boogaloo! Our longest episode to date, we really don't lack for things to talk about. There's a a lot to love in this show and some to look critically at but we really only have one question: who are those people in the bed with Apollo? We get into a lot, such as Zeus as a father, whether the Fates' baby on the table makes any sense, how Heron should dress and which was our favorite giant. Plus, a loooong discussion about sexy lamps and winged phalloi! Stay till the end for the gag reel. Enjoy!

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Screw your winged horse, I want a Manticore!" We break down the first four episodes of Netflix's original anime series with repeat guest Christie Vogler and newcomer Zoé Thomas. We dig into the show's pop cultural influences, its novel takes on mythology and the design choice to make everyone super hot. We also talk at length about Hera's anger, Zeus' faults and convenient vases depicting exactly the myth you need to tell. The mention of unmixed wine also really shakes our kraters. Additional questions: Would a similar show set in Rome with as much attention to artistic style feature too many ugly sculpture? How many brains does a three headed dog need? Should we all just play kottabos when we party? We also introduce new literary lens where all stories are actually about Alexander the Great.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

“A man who thinks that he has been done wrong is a mad, mad man.” (the Iliad, abridged). Get these and other hot takes as we finish off our miniseries on this miniseries the only way we know how: by climbing into a big wooden horse and hoping for the best. Joined by another wonderful UT undergraduate, we break down the final episodes of Netflix’s historical action-adventure romance drama. We dwell on the rage of Achilles and his susceptibility to very obvious schemes. We pick apart the denouement of Helen and Xanthias the spy, in all its contrivances. We lament the short-lived presence of the Amazons. Plus, we start asking the big questions. Should Odysseus be empathetic or cruel or somewhere in between? Is Aeneas not bland enough? Does Priam dye his mustache? Count how many times we say “the Iliad” when we actually mean some other text. When you’re in the moment, they’re all the Iliad!

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joined by three fantastic first year students from UT Austin, we continue our discussion of Netflix's miniseries as we get into episodes 4-6. We discuss how this show has updated the tale for this generation of viewers and how it compares to the 2004's Troy. What characters work and don't work for us? Do we want a good or a bad Hector? Are the gods necessary or superfluous? Is what this show needs just more blood? Also witness the exact moment when Colin realizes Aeneas was Dean Thomas in HP. Answers to these and many more await, along with repeated plugs for Shadow & Bone.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We launch the first of a special, three part miniseries on the Netflix/BBC original on the Trojan War. Joining us is UT Classics professor and archaeologist Dr. Adam Rabinowitz who is currently teaching a class on the stories of the Trojan War. We talk about our initial reactions to episodes 1-3, as well as more broadly on the show's place in the modern TV landscape. Is this series actually about family more than love or war? Is there much more to Helen's character than we might detect on first viewing? Why is an extra hammering bronze? What's with the ostrich?

You can find Adam online as well as through his work with the following projects:

• Planet Texas 2050 - a research initiative dedicated to sustaining Texas' critical resources
• Learning from Histria - Adam's archaeological work on settlements in the Black Sea, which you can also read about here and here
• You can also hear Adam speak about his work in Romania on the Slavic Connexion

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Get your checkbooks ready Hollywood producers because we basically re-pitch a new, better version of this now 10 year old film. On top of that, we dig up the literary and historic source material inspiring the plot, along with the larger ideas and implications tie to its Heart-of-Darkness-esc depiction of Hadrian's Wall, Northern Britain and Roman imperialism. Overall, we found more to chew over than we first thought. Much of that being the thought process behind casting its lead. It comes so close to an interesting and complex depiction of the Roman but trips up at the very end. More importantly, is there an intertextual relation between Esca and Jar-Jar Binks?

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you ready to go back to Titanic Pompeii? Accompanied by another fantastic host, Christy "I didn't want Kiefer like that," Schirmer, we dig into a movie where being a gladiator is a non-stop killing bonanza and the fastest way to a woman's heart is by euthanizing a horse. Is this just a big heap of hot, pyroclastic garbage? Considering how much archaeological material we have from Pompeii, it's almost amazing this movie engages with practically none of it. We, on the other hand, do talk about the actual Pompeii as well as Herculaneum as well as the plot of this and other arguably much better films. Our great revelation is this movie is not about gladiators or love or volcanoes, but horses.

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two questions: 1) Is this a nuanced and thoughtful take on the religious and political strife in Alexandria and the wider Roman world in the 4th/5th century CE? 2) Why is this movie called Agora? We dive into both issues as well as what we know about the real Hypatia (not enough), why she's a great candidate for a dramatic treatment and why seeing Earth from orbit will make you realize that all our differences are just the petty squabbles of losers who haven't been to space. Colin tells a very relevant story about a philosopher who reveals a vampire. Larger question, if you were sent back in time (to say ancient Rome), what knowledge or technology would you be able to bring with you to give yourself an edge? Was this all just an excuse to talk about Game of Thrones?

As always, if you like what you hear, please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe to the show! Stay up-to-date on all the Movies We Dig news by visiting movieswedig.com or checking out our socials.

Movies We Dig is also part of Mnemosyne: The Memory Collective, a podcast network and creator collective for historians, archaeologists, artists, and other creators and educators dedicated to sharing content about and featuring the ancient world that is accurate, accessible, and inclusive. To learn more about the collective and its contributors, check out collectivemem.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.